SM Prime Holdings Inc., owned by retail tycoon Henry Sy, Sr., plans to build more shopping alls in China to take advantage to the huge opportunities in the fastest growing economy in the world.

SMPHI president Hans Sy told reporters that company had hired foreign investment bankers to help study the company’s entry in China.  “We are hopeful that we will soon be able to finalize the plan within the year, Sy said.

The company hopes to finalize the plan within the year.

Sy said SM Prime would become the majority shareholder in the China malls, which could contribute 8 to 9 percent to the company’s bottom line.

The Sy family, through a private company, runs two SM malls in China, one in Crossroad West in Xiamen and one Jiang City in Fujian province. A third one is under construction in Chengdu, which will have retail giant Wal-mart and Laiya, as a leading supermarket operator in Thailand, as anchor tenants.

Sy said the China malls were doing well in terms of revenues.

He earlier said that the family wanted to open one shopping mall per year in China to take advantage of the opportunities in the area.

The China malls carry the SM trademark under agreement with the SM Group of Companies.

Meanwhile, Sy said the family was studying the possibility of folding the ventures in China into the SM Prime, the shopping mall operator and developer of SM Investments Corp.

“That is an option. But we have not finalized that,Sy said.

In the domestic front, SMPHI plans to open five malls, including the Mall of Asia, which just opened yesterday.

The company has allotted P6.5 billion to P7 billion for capital expenditure this year and plans to borrow P4 billion to P5 billion, possibly in the domestic market, to finance the construction of new malls and land acquisitions.

The company is redeveloping its first shopping mall in North Edsa to compete with Trinoma, Ayala’s first shopping mall in Quezon City, which is set to open in 2007.